dondo
10-30-2008, 12:46 AM
Procyshen and Reddick were both very good tonight. As were Bouma, Cunningham, Blum and Schira.
Kirk was Kirk -- I wonder if fans in other arenas have as much problem with him that we do? I'd be interested to hear.
Some great individual efforts by Giants players to get the win. A tough challenge for the G-Men and could have been their first regulation loss, but wasn't. Tri-City are the real deal and their tight checking nearly gave them the game. Good come-back by the Giants, but they need to learn not to take the foot off the pedal when they have the lead. usually they don't but they did a couple of times tonight and I would like to see them address that side of their game in these instances.
Giants Clip Americans
Vancouver 4 Tri-City 3
Don Robinson
Kirk you suck, You suck Kirk was the all too familiar refrain from the vehement crowd as uber-useless referee Matt Kirk botched up a solo reffing outing tonight almost gifting the game to the visitors in the process. Apparently the head of officiating for the dub was in the building and after the cat-calling from the crowd and seriously suspect calls I hope that Kirk is reprimanded greatly for his inability to call a decent game. The Americans opened their scoring on the PP after a really soft call. I hate to have to single out the ref tonight as the Ams played a very good road game complete with straight-jacket tight checking and some nice goals through traffic, but I really do have to as he was reason the Ams got an early opportunity to tie up the game. It was see-saw battle back and forth and it took two brilliant breakaway goals from two different players to tie the game in the third and then get the go ahead goal, for a lead which would stand up to the end of the game.
The Giants opened the scoring in the game as Evander Kane stretched his point scoring streak to eleven games tonight with what everyone in the building thought was a goal, but ended up being an assist as the shot which hit inside the net and bounced out was called a no goal. CPZ made up for the call sliding the loose puck past Chet Pickard for the first goal of the game. Craig Schira got the second assist. This came at 1:19 of the first period. The Ams tied up the game on the PP when Craig Schira laid the body and was called for an invisible elbow. Kruise Reddick came in off the right wing and snapped the puck far side past Sexsmith. The play was made possible by a beautiful tape to tape pass from Chet Pickard to the far blue-line where Reddick was waiting. The Ams got another PP a few minutes later and managed to bulge the twine with seconds ticking down. This PP came off of a roughing call called in the Americans crease out of a scrum with everyone pushing and shoving and no punches being thrown. The only player thrown to the ice was Kane and there was no call. Justin Feser shovelled it past Sexsmith out of a scrum in front of the Giants net. Reddick and Procyshen got the helpers. The Giants out shot the Ams 11-8 in the first, but were down 2-1 after one.
The G-Men started off every period well, but tended to either fade or get worn down by the hounding of the Americans who were relentless checkers tonight. They did not have stellar puck handling this evening, but that could have been due to the pressure from the Tri-City boys. The Giants hard work and tenacity paid off though as Lance Bouma created some room for Craig Cunningham to try a wraparound, barely finding the twine as he slipped the puck past Pickard’s pads sneaking the puck across the goal-line. The goal judge took forever to light the lamp as the majority of fans were already on their feet cheering when the red-light decided to light, way after the fact. Bouma garnered an assist on the play along with Schira for his second helper of the night. The Ams tied it up with around 30 seconds left in the middle frame, with their first even strength goal of the game. A couple of shifts after Sexsmith flashed the leather to steal a sure goal with a well-placed glove. The Ams finally found a way to get it by him a shift later with a tip which caught the far inside of the post. Sexsmith did not see the shot. Defenseman Tyler Schmidt was awarded the goal, but the puck definitely changed direction to go into the net. Perhaps a Giant player tipped it in, but I personally believe it was an Tri-City player who was not given the credit. Tri-City back up by one as the buzzer sounded for the end of the second.
The Giants were not ready to go down without a fight and it took a massive check by Bouma on the end boards to re-ignite his team mate’s hunger and the fans enthusiasm. Tri-City was trying to play shut down hockey up until that point, but found themselves scrambling a bit as the Giants began to ramp up their game. Make no mistake, the Ams are a very good team with speed and offensive weapons, so coming back would not be easy, but there were two players who knew they could get it done. Mid-way through the period Brendan Gallagher stripped a Tri-City player of the puck in the neutral zone and found a streaking Andrej Kudrna. Kudrna did not go wide but went right at the defender for his patented inside out move burying the puck behind Pickard. A couple of minutes later Garry Nunn got the monkey to stop riding his back with a nice goal of his own. Jonathon Blum sprung Nunn loose with a nice pass in the neutral zone. Nunn split through two defenders to get to the puck and then with a final burst of speed, with the two trailers riding his heels, he got enough separation to deke forehand and sweep a nice backhand up into the top of the net over Pickard’s pad.
With the lead the Giants continued to press and then Kirk decided to not only start calling invisible stuff out of the blue, but calling them badly. The Giants had what they thought was a goal as they ripped it into the net from the blue-line and the ref’s hand had been raised with the Giants having solid possession. I suppose he forgot which team he was calling a penalty on as he waived off the goal and charged Kudrna with a high stick, which I never saw, but wasn’t looking that hard. The problem I really have is that the Giants had clear possession and he didn’t blow the whistle. The penalty was mitigated a bit later when it took an entire crowd screaming - before a “too many men on the ice” bench minor was actually called. The Ams had a molasses slow line change with six and possibly seven players on the ice, but until the crowd went bonkers our official of the evening failed to notice. Then late in the game Kane was assessed a checking from behind penalty which in a word, wasn’t. The player hit changed direction as he was being checked along the boards, saw the hit coming and got caught. He did not go into the glass face first, but he did get clocked big time. It was good hit, except in the eyes of the zebra. The Ams were able to pull their goalie late and almost gave up an empty netter with time ticking down, but the Giants managed to hold onto the win by the nose hair.
I hate to continue to harp on Kirk, but when one of the regular season ticket holding fans shows up sporting a sign which read .. “the scariest thing on the ice tonight is… “and then standing beside it wearing a Kirk referee jersey complete with orange stripe and Kirk’s name and number, you know he has a reputation. If that isn’t a signal to the league that this zebra is a total waste, then I don’t know what is. The sad thing is that refs this bad seem to get rewarded and elevated to the majors. Remember Rehman everyone? Another waste of stripes? He’s reffing in the NHL now – I still can’t stop shaking my head over that one. Yes I know that refs are a bias of mine and that I rarely like what the refs do, but ask any other fan there tonight and they’ll say the same thing.
The Americans played last night in an extended battle with the Silvertips, losing 7-6 in a shootout after coming back late to tie the game with some third period heroics. So they might not have had the energy for a full game, but they played the same kind of game as the Giants did. They clutched a bit and were guilty of a few blatant holds, but the difference was that they didn’t get called for it and that’s pretty bogus. Reddick and Procyshen had good nights for the Ams, but it wasn’t quite enough to give the Giants their first regulation loss. The Giants are now 11-0-0-3 and continue to lead the dub.
The Giants went 0 for 3 on the PP, while allowing two goals and a 2 for 6 night for the Americans with the man-advantage. The Ams scored on their first two PPs and were shut down the rest of the way with a man up. The Giants out shot the Ams 39-22 and Pickard was very good for the majority of the game. It took some great shots to beat him. The only one he might want back is the Cunningham wraparound which snuck past him along the ice. The Giants take on the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday Nov 1st. The puck drops at 7:00pm PDT at the rink on Renfrew.
Three Stars
1) Lance Bouma
2) Craig Schira
3) Kruise Reddick
Kirk was Kirk -- I wonder if fans in other arenas have as much problem with him that we do? I'd be interested to hear.
Some great individual efforts by Giants players to get the win. A tough challenge for the G-Men and could have been their first regulation loss, but wasn't. Tri-City are the real deal and their tight checking nearly gave them the game. Good come-back by the Giants, but they need to learn not to take the foot off the pedal when they have the lead. usually they don't but they did a couple of times tonight and I would like to see them address that side of their game in these instances.
Giants Clip Americans
Vancouver 4 Tri-City 3
Don Robinson
Kirk you suck, You suck Kirk was the all too familiar refrain from the vehement crowd as uber-useless referee Matt Kirk botched up a solo reffing outing tonight almost gifting the game to the visitors in the process. Apparently the head of officiating for the dub was in the building and after the cat-calling from the crowd and seriously suspect calls I hope that Kirk is reprimanded greatly for his inability to call a decent game. The Americans opened their scoring on the PP after a really soft call. I hate to have to single out the ref tonight as the Ams played a very good road game complete with straight-jacket tight checking and some nice goals through traffic, but I really do have to as he was reason the Ams got an early opportunity to tie up the game. It was see-saw battle back and forth and it took two brilliant breakaway goals from two different players to tie the game in the third and then get the go ahead goal, for a lead which would stand up to the end of the game.
The Giants opened the scoring in the game as Evander Kane stretched his point scoring streak to eleven games tonight with what everyone in the building thought was a goal, but ended up being an assist as the shot which hit inside the net and bounced out was called a no goal. CPZ made up for the call sliding the loose puck past Chet Pickard for the first goal of the game. Craig Schira got the second assist. This came at 1:19 of the first period. The Ams tied up the game on the PP when Craig Schira laid the body and was called for an invisible elbow. Kruise Reddick came in off the right wing and snapped the puck far side past Sexsmith. The play was made possible by a beautiful tape to tape pass from Chet Pickard to the far blue-line where Reddick was waiting. The Ams got another PP a few minutes later and managed to bulge the twine with seconds ticking down. This PP came off of a roughing call called in the Americans crease out of a scrum with everyone pushing and shoving and no punches being thrown. The only player thrown to the ice was Kane and there was no call. Justin Feser shovelled it past Sexsmith out of a scrum in front of the Giants net. Reddick and Procyshen got the helpers. The Giants out shot the Ams 11-8 in the first, but were down 2-1 after one.
The G-Men started off every period well, but tended to either fade or get worn down by the hounding of the Americans who were relentless checkers tonight. They did not have stellar puck handling this evening, but that could have been due to the pressure from the Tri-City boys. The Giants hard work and tenacity paid off though as Lance Bouma created some room for Craig Cunningham to try a wraparound, barely finding the twine as he slipped the puck past Pickard’s pads sneaking the puck across the goal-line. The goal judge took forever to light the lamp as the majority of fans were already on their feet cheering when the red-light decided to light, way after the fact. Bouma garnered an assist on the play along with Schira for his second helper of the night. The Ams tied it up with around 30 seconds left in the middle frame, with their first even strength goal of the game. A couple of shifts after Sexsmith flashed the leather to steal a sure goal with a well-placed glove. The Ams finally found a way to get it by him a shift later with a tip which caught the far inside of the post. Sexsmith did not see the shot. Defenseman Tyler Schmidt was awarded the goal, but the puck definitely changed direction to go into the net. Perhaps a Giant player tipped it in, but I personally believe it was an Tri-City player who was not given the credit. Tri-City back up by one as the buzzer sounded for the end of the second.
The Giants were not ready to go down without a fight and it took a massive check by Bouma on the end boards to re-ignite his team mate’s hunger and the fans enthusiasm. Tri-City was trying to play shut down hockey up until that point, but found themselves scrambling a bit as the Giants began to ramp up their game. Make no mistake, the Ams are a very good team with speed and offensive weapons, so coming back would not be easy, but there were two players who knew they could get it done. Mid-way through the period Brendan Gallagher stripped a Tri-City player of the puck in the neutral zone and found a streaking Andrej Kudrna. Kudrna did not go wide but went right at the defender for his patented inside out move burying the puck behind Pickard. A couple of minutes later Garry Nunn got the monkey to stop riding his back with a nice goal of his own. Jonathon Blum sprung Nunn loose with a nice pass in the neutral zone. Nunn split through two defenders to get to the puck and then with a final burst of speed, with the two trailers riding his heels, he got enough separation to deke forehand and sweep a nice backhand up into the top of the net over Pickard’s pad.
With the lead the Giants continued to press and then Kirk decided to not only start calling invisible stuff out of the blue, but calling them badly. The Giants had what they thought was a goal as they ripped it into the net from the blue-line and the ref’s hand had been raised with the Giants having solid possession. I suppose he forgot which team he was calling a penalty on as he waived off the goal and charged Kudrna with a high stick, which I never saw, but wasn’t looking that hard. The problem I really have is that the Giants had clear possession and he didn’t blow the whistle. The penalty was mitigated a bit later when it took an entire crowd screaming - before a “too many men on the ice” bench minor was actually called. The Ams had a molasses slow line change with six and possibly seven players on the ice, but until the crowd went bonkers our official of the evening failed to notice. Then late in the game Kane was assessed a checking from behind penalty which in a word, wasn’t. The player hit changed direction as he was being checked along the boards, saw the hit coming and got caught. He did not go into the glass face first, but he did get clocked big time. It was good hit, except in the eyes of the zebra. The Ams were able to pull their goalie late and almost gave up an empty netter with time ticking down, but the Giants managed to hold onto the win by the nose hair.
I hate to continue to harp on Kirk, but when one of the regular season ticket holding fans shows up sporting a sign which read .. “the scariest thing on the ice tonight is… “and then standing beside it wearing a Kirk referee jersey complete with orange stripe and Kirk’s name and number, you know he has a reputation. If that isn’t a signal to the league that this zebra is a total waste, then I don’t know what is. The sad thing is that refs this bad seem to get rewarded and elevated to the majors. Remember Rehman everyone? Another waste of stripes? He’s reffing in the NHL now – I still can’t stop shaking my head over that one. Yes I know that refs are a bias of mine and that I rarely like what the refs do, but ask any other fan there tonight and they’ll say the same thing.
The Americans played last night in an extended battle with the Silvertips, losing 7-6 in a shootout after coming back late to tie the game with some third period heroics. So they might not have had the energy for a full game, but they played the same kind of game as the Giants did. They clutched a bit and were guilty of a few blatant holds, but the difference was that they didn’t get called for it and that’s pretty bogus. Reddick and Procyshen had good nights for the Ams, but it wasn’t quite enough to give the Giants their first regulation loss. The Giants are now 11-0-0-3 and continue to lead the dub.
The Giants went 0 for 3 on the PP, while allowing two goals and a 2 for 6 night for the Americans with the man-advantage. The Ams scored on their first two PPs and were shut down the rest of the way with a man up. The Giants out shot the Ams 39-22 and Pickard was very good for the majority of the game. It took some great shots to beat him. The only one he might want back is the Cunningham wraparound which snuck past him along the ice. The Giants take on the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday Nov 1st. The puck drops at 7:00pm PDT at the rink on Renfrew.
Three Stars
1) Lance Bouma
2) Craig Schira
3) Kruise Reddick